Jenna Mobley

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "A man is known by the books that he reads." If this is true, than I am known by many.

Books have been a constant in my life ever since I was a little girl. Throughout my life I was the girl with that unread book in her bag that would go with her wherever she went. Sneaking glances at pages was my way of life. My obsession was not entirely misunderstood when one thinks of my background. I was born into a small town called Hinesville, Ga. My parents were both workaholics with my mother working at a high school and my father working two jobs in the military. The only outside entertainment to be found was the movie theater in the middle of town. Even though movies were entertaining to say the least, they could never amount up to reading a novel.

Novels took me to places and on adventures that I could only dream of. They helped me float down the River Styx with Charon from Greek Mythology. I fell in love with a ghost in A Certain Slant of Light. I rode in a gondola in Venice with the Thief Lord. I learned what it was like to be an outsider from the Last Alien on the Planet. The Savage taught me that it might be better to be miserable in this Brave New World.

With reading, I learned the ways of the world without taking a step. I truly realized what Francis Bacon meant when he said, "Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few are to be chewed and digested." Not only did books extend my vocabulary, but they also taught me things that other would have to learn by mistake or never at all. I would find myself rereading novels again and again as I was drawn to the adventures and lessons the print held.

Even with their influence and their great teachings, I found myself drawn to law. Since I was five I had known that I would become a lawyer. Books seemed to inspire me on this path as I though of how I could be like my several heroes in the text. I could fight the evils of the world instead of with gun and sword, but with the ink with which they were written. They taught me that sometimes the pen was mightier than the sword. The law was just as good as any weapon.

As I entered college majoring in Criminal Justice, I knew that what was to come was going to be nothing less of extraordinary. Now I find it even more so as I was once again pulled in by the mysticism of words and added the major of English as I finish this class. I await the many adventures I am to have in the future.